Jonas Heide Smiths notesblog» research

Mine seneste 10 links

Jonas Heide Smith — Wed, 05 May 2010 12:57:52 +0000

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Mine seneste 10 links

Mine seneste 10 links (27/07/2010)

Mine seneste 10 links (12/08/2010)

Mine seneste 10 links (18/08/2010)

Mine seneste 10 links (02/06/2010)

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Playful politics

Jonas Heide Smith — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:50:47 +0000

A parliamentary election is almost upon is here in modest-sized Denmark. The current right-of-center government, supported by the nationalist Danish People’s Party, is being challenged by a left-of-center axis. With Christian Democrats unlikely to reach the (non-taxing) cut-off of 2% and our most left-wing party balancing on that same edge. Also, Helle Thorning-Schmidt – leader of the Social Democrats – could theoretically be the country’s first female prime minister.

Anyway, much has been said (not least in my course on Digital Rhetorics) about the esteemed candidates’ use of online media (for instance by knowledgeable colleague Lisbeth Klastrup). So let us instead focus on that less-dominant genre the political game.

We know how Howard Dean laid the foundations, and how former colleague Gonzalo Frasca helped the president of Uruguay (if we don’t know, we may want to read Ian Bogost’s recent book Persuasive Games).
In present day Denmark, however, political video games do not exactly overwhelm the politically curious citizen. But I have found a couple of specimens:

Overbudsbold: Made by a team of ITU students for DR. The player chooses a leader of a political party and an opponent to engage in a type of tennis in which the “ball” is a money bag growing bigger each time it is pushed over the net. The game comments on the tendency for candidates to attempt to top one another in promises. The idea, I believe, is that this practice is nothing but a silly game. Overbudsbold stands apart from the crowd in my opinion by being actually fun to play in its own right.

Så’ det ud: The youth branch of the Liberal party (in government) have published a game in which you (as current minister) place opposition leaders in a catapult and fling them as far as you can. No political statement is being made, to put it mildly. It’s slightly odd that the “heroes” are as caricatured as the opposition here, since no other attempts are being made at fairness.

Kampvalg is a game made by game developers Press Play. Here (as in Overbudsbold) two party leaders face of. But Press Play have exhanged Pong for Tekken in terms of inspiration. The player must attack the opponent using a small selection of aggressive moves.

Finally, ValgSpil ’07 is another developer showcase. Here you, as the player, must “survive a press meeting”, answering questions from reporters in an attempt to keep the general opinion on your side. The argument seems to be that party leaders face difficult a difficult challenge of presenting their policies without estranging voter groups.

In summary, only one game (“Så’ det ud”) with a political stance. The others hint/claim that politics is war – and, in the case of Overbudsbold, a rather silly exercise.
A somewhat underwhelming collection, perhaps. Did I leave out anything worthwhile?

Happy voting tomorrow, and may the best candidate obtain the highest score!

Lignende indlæg:

TL Taylor: Play Between Worlds

Games and gamers (28/06/2005)

PhD scholarships available at ITU (23/08/2007)

CFP: Nordic Game 2006 (23/06/2006)

The triumphant return of… media studies (11/10/2005)

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Sociology Master Thesis gets censored

Jonas Heide Smith — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:41:42 +0000

In what seems to me a difficult PR challenge to both, DR (the Danish BBC equivalent) and Copenhagen University‘s Department of Sociology have collaborated in censoring a sociology master thesis. As reported in Information (upon which the following is based) Mille Buch-Andersen did a study of the organizational culture of DR’s symphonic orchestra.

While her supervisor apparently assured her repeatedly that the master thesis was ready for submission, an angry email from DR seems to have caused a change of heart at the department who urged/threatened Buch-Andersen to withdraw the thesis and revise it before resubmitting.
Having revised and received her degree, Buch-Andersen now says (in my translation):

Academically, I am very disappointed by the department. I am also surprised – no, I am speechless about this. It’s against everything which I thought sociology to be. And it is the direct opposite of what we are taught. We learn that it is the role of sociology to uncover power relations, abuse of power and conflicts in this regard. And that it is part of the discipline that our reports can sometimes be unpleasant reading to some.

That one has to hurt.
While both DR and the department claim “breaches of research ethics” – and while I’m sure there are still-unrevealed aspects of the case – two (in this context) powerful organizations threatening a single student who claims to be a victim of politics and academic cowardice is difficult to paint in pretty colors. One wonders if far less harm had come of letting the student simply submit the original thesis; the chosen strategy seems both exagerated and desperate, as in “what do they have to hide which is so light-sensitive?”.

Lignende indlæg:

The triumphant return of… media studies

Risk-free societies (27/10/2004)

Advice for ITU project writers (20/04/2006)

As we may watch (28/09/2006)

Games and gamers (28/06/2005)

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Persuasive Games reviewed

Jonas Heide Smith — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 06:51:38 +0000

I’ve published my thoughts on Ian Bogost’s book Persuasive Games over at game-research.com.
Briefly, I found the book a bit light on theory but excellent as a survey of the explosively growing field.

Lignende indlæg:

New essay on games in culture

Games and gamers (28/06/2005)

Game rhetoric (27/09/2007)

Playful politics (12/11/2007)

Game Research summit at ITU, 6 December (01/12/2006)

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Action game boosts spatial skills

Jonas Heide Smith — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:16:24 +0000

Researchers at the University of Toronto report that action game play increased players’ spatial skills, also over time. Female players get the biggest boost. Professor Ian Spence notes that

Clearly, something dramatic is happening in the brain when we see marked improvements in spatial skills after only 10 hours of game playing and these improvements are maintained for many months

That does seem a very considerable effect…

Game rhetoric

Jonas Heide Smith — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:53:42 +0000

I didn’t see it coming a few years back but I’m taking an interest in the persuasive powers of games (but then who isn’t? :-))
In that regard, I’ve strewn a few thoughts across my research group blog.

Lignende indlæg:

New article on videogames and economic game theory

CFP: Nordic Game 2006 (23/06/2006)

Persuasive Games reviewed (02/10/2007)

Never underestimate the power of Atari Today (11/10/2006)

Game Lecture at ITU tomorrow: Can you make them cry without tearing your hair out? (06/06/2007)

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PhD scholarships available at ITU

Jonas Heide Smith — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:50:40 +0000

The ITU has just posted a number of PhD scholarships.
You may be most interested in project proposals within the Innovative Communication area; for instance Uses of online media genres in political communication.
Send forth the applications.

Lignende indlæg:

PhD Scholarship in MMORPG development available

Game Research summit at ITU, 6 December (01/12/2006)

Gonzalo at Copenhagen University tommorow (25/05/2005)

As we may watch (28/09/2006)

Video games – passion, practice & fresh perspectives workshop at ITU in August (14/06/2005)

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New essay on games in culture

Jonas Heide Smith — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:32:20 +0000

I’ve just published a brief essay on Game Research entitled No Medium is an Island: An essay on the Video Game and its cultural neighborhood. It makes comparisons between the cultural history of video games and that of film. The comment field at the bottom of the page is open :-)

Lignende indlæg:

New article on videogames and economic game theory

First European symposium on Computer Games and Emotions (23/11/2006)

Gaming Culture web page now up (28/06/2005)

PhD Scholarship in MMORPG development available (28/07/2005)

The Spam Wars take a new turn (09/05/2007)

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Game Lecture at ITU tomorrow: Can you make them cry without tearing your hair out?

Jonas Heide Smith — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 07:56:25 +0000

Can you make them cry without tearing your hair out?
- Emotional Characters

Associate Professor Katherine Isbister, Rensselaer Politechnic Institute

Time and Place:
Thursday June 7th, 16:15-17:30. Auditorium 3, ITU.

About the talk:
Have you been hearing more about how important emotion is for reaching a bigger audience and taking full advantage of new platforms in game design? This talk focuses on one key area of games that can add emotional impact: characters. Working from a foundation in understanding the psychology of the player, this talk presents some essential challenges and opportunities in character design that come along with the rise of procedural animation, better processors that can handle more complex AI, and new input devices (such as Nintendos DS touch pad and Wii controller) that provide richer opportunity for player expression.

Bio:
Katherine is Director of the Games Research Lab at Rensselaer (RPI),
where she has worked to build an undergraduate major in game design,
as well as a robust program of games-related research. She developed
and taught a course at Stanford University on the Design of
Characters for Games, before joining RPI’s faculty. She received her
Ph.D. from Stanford, with a focus on using ideas from social
psychology to design better, more effective interactive characters.
Katherine recently completed a book entitled: Better Game Characters
by Design: A Psychological Approach, which was nominated for a Game
Developer Magazine Front Line award in 2006. She has published work
in a wide variety of venues, and has given invited talks at research
and academic venues including Sony research labs in Japan, Banff
Centre in Canada, IBM, the Royal Institute of Technology in
Stockholm, and others.

Lignende indlæg:

Game lecture: Aki Järvinen to speak at ITU tomorrow

Game Research summit at ITU, 6 December (01/12/2006)

Jane McGonigal lectures at ITU, 30 November (27/11/2006)

First European symposium on Computer Games and Emotions (23/11/2006)

Game positions offered (09/02/2007)

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The Spam Wars take a new turn

Jonas Heide Smith — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:19:38 +0000

In a case of Hybris I’ve blogged earlier on my triumph over spam.

The latest from the (blog comment) trenches, however, is a new spammer weapon: Effort.

Check this out:

i think the makers of monkey island and broken sword and csi should make them for the wii consol because they would be easier to control

It was posted last night in “response” to the front page of http://game-research.com/

And I just got:

I think video game violence affects different people in different ways. It does not intrinsically make people more violent (they may be violent in the first place) but it is one of the motivators of violence, as is TV and music, which can heighten violent tendancies.

That one from

Author : Symptoms of Celiac Disease (IP: 217.42.164.43 ,
host217-42-164-43.range217-42.btcentralplus.com)

as a comment on this page on “Health Hazards”.

You almost feel approving a few of these just to reward the semi-sentience.

Lignende indlæg:

Video game violence and physiological desensitization

New essay on games in culture (21/08/2007)

Game positions offered (09/02/2007)

The Project takes a new direction… – or: At least the sub-title is still reasonable (24/05/2005)

Advice for ITU project writers (20/04/2006)

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